How to Paraphrase and Avoid Plagiarism or How

How to Paraphrase and Avoid Plagiarism (or How To Research Without Accidentally Stealing Someone Else’s Ideas!)

Pop Quiz: Which of these situations are cheating? 1. Copying from someone during a Biology test. 2. Asking someone in per 1 for the questions on the quiz you’re taking per 3. 3. Recycling & re-using your older sister’s project (saves paper, right? ). 4. Using ideas, but not direct quotations, from Spark. Notes. 5. Turning in the same paper as your friend for History (hey, I’m in Ms. Vincench’s class and she’s in Ms. Piekarski’s…). 6. Cutting and pasting a sentence from a website and then changing some of the words using the Thesaurus. 7. Letting my friend copy my French homework. 8. Using a quote from the book in your benchmark project paper, with a parenthetical citation, but forgetting to put quotation marks around it. 9. Putting “the Earth revolves around the sun” in your paper and not citing that fact. (Answer: All are cheating except #9, which is common knowledge)

What is Plagiarism? “…Taking and passing off as one’s own someone else’s work or ideas (from Latin plagiārius, kidnapper, literary thief). ” ~ Macmillan Dictionary ANY TIME YOU USE SOMEONE ELSE'S IDEA, cite it.

The Dangers of Cut and Paste… • Did you know that if you CUT AND PASTE from a website • OR even if you borrow an IDEA and put it in your own words… • And you don’t cite it… It’s cheating? Yikes!

This is Plagiarism Too! • Not using ANY of your own ideas (entire paper is cited) • Parenthetical citations do not lead to the right source • Inaccurately paraphrasing or misrepresenting the author’s intentions

What’s The Big Deal? At Irvington, if you plagiarize: • 1 st time: Zero on the assignment, call home, conference with parent and administrator. Can lose class privileges like contracts. • 2 nd time: NC in the class • 3 rd time: loss of extracurriculars, expulsion In the “Real World, ” if you plagiarize, you may… • Be expelled from college the first time • Lose your job • Lose recommendations to another college or job • Be sued by the person whose idea you “borrowed”

Geez. Are there any times I DON’T need to cite? • Info is so general it’s common knowledge. Nobody would need to look it up: – George Washington was the first US President. – Most schools have a summer vacation. – The Earth revolves around the sun. – Pollution is bad for the environment. • When the idea is your own: Romeo and Juliet’s relationship is difficult for modern audiences to understand because the characters fall in love more quickly than modern people. When in Doubt, Cite!

Instead of Plagiarizing, there are 2 choices… 1. Summarize or Paraphrase! Put the information completely in your own words, with a citation. Or… 2. Use direct quotations! Use the authors words, with “quotation marks around them” and a citation.

Use A Direct Quotation • Use author’s exact words in quotations • Don’t make ANY changes to the original words • Cite your quotation (Wilson 5) • If you need to leave words out, show where they are missing using…ellipses

…or Paraphrase • Explain the main ideas of something you read • Show that you understand the source • Write completely in your own words • Cite the source (Wilson 5)

How to do Parenthetical Citations • Author and page #: (Martinez 5) • For web sources, sometimes you have to use the paragraph number: (Martinez par. 16) • Sometimes you don’t have an author. Move to the next thing, the title: (“Pollution” 56) or (“Police Dogs” par. 16)

Example • Original: “In research writing, sources are cited for two reasons: to alert readers to the sources of your information and to give credit to the writers from whom you have borrowed words and ideas” (Hacker). • Summary: Writers cite sources to show where their material comes from (Hacker).

Caution! When you summarize or paraphrase… • Keeping any of the same vocabulary is plagiarism, even if you cite it • Keeping the original order of ideas is plagiarism, even if you cite it • Don’t change the meaning

Bad Paraphrasing! • Original: “In research writing, sources are cited for two reasons: to alert readers to the sources of your information and to give credit to the writers from whom you have borrowed words and ideas” (Hacker). • Plagiarized Paraphrase: In research writing, we cite sources for a couple reasons: to notify readers of our information sources and give credit to authors we borrowed from (Hacker). • Writer has not made enough changes. Most of the original words are the same, and the original structure of the quote are the same.

Good Paraphrasing • Original: “In research writing, sources are cited for two reasons: to alert readers to the sources of your information and to give credit to the writers from whom you have borrowed words and ideas” (Hacker). • Good Paraphrase: A researcher cites sources to acknowledge the original author’s work and to make sure the audience can tell where the information came from (Hacker). • Writer has changed the order of ideas and the words used. It is completely in his own words.

You Tell Me… • Original: “Be completely honest with your children. This will show them how always applicable the principle is and will demonstrate your commitment to it… Never let them hear you tell little ‘convenient lies’ on the phone and never ask them to tell one for you” (Eyre 15). • GOOD or BAD? Never tell lies, even convenient lies, around your children. In addition, don’t let them tell a lie for you. By doing this, you will demonstrate your commitment to honesty (Eyre 15).

You Tell Me… • Original: “Be completely honest with your children. This will show them how always applicable the principle is and will demonstrate your commitment to it… Never let them hear you tell little ‘convenient lies’ on the phone and never ask them to tell one for you” (Eyre). • GOOD or BAD? Be totally honest with your kids. This shows them that honesty is always important, and it will show them that you care. Never tell lies, even if small, and never ask them to lie for you (Eyre).

You Tell Me… • Original: “Be completely honest with your children. This will show them how always applicable the principle is and will demonstrate your commitment to it… Never let them hear you tell little ‘convenient lies’ on the phone and never ask them to tell one for you” (Eyre). • GOOD or BAD? Children learn from their parents’ examples, especially when it comes to honesty. Parents who don’t tell or allow lies, even “white lies”, show their children the importance of telling the truth by setting a good example (Eyre).

How to Paraphrase in 3 Easy Steps! 1. READ: • Stop after each paragraph or “chunk” and ask, “What did I just read? ” • Take notes = Write down a list of the main ideas. • Write ONLY things that relate to topic or support your point. • Summarize facts, not sentences. Only use what you need. • NO full sentences.

2. PARAPHRASE or DIRECT QUOTE: • • • Put the source away & write full sentences about what you just read, in your own words, in your own order, using the notes. Pretend you’re explaining to a friend. Try starting with something different/change the order. DON’T put anything in your paper that you don’t understand. Check and make sure it’s not the same DON’T cut and paste!

3. CITE YOUR SOURCES! • ALWAYS cite right after “direct quotations, ” numbers, dates, statistics. • Cite after you paraphrase (yep, even though the whole thing is in your own words!) • After 3 paraphrased sentences from same source

When should you use a Direct Quotation? How do you choose one? – When you really can’t say it better! – When you want to capture the author’s way of saying something – When the exact words matter – Only quote as much as you need (1 -2 sentences usually) – Only when it’s relevant and important – Don’t change the author’s meaning

How do you put a quotation in your essay? Introduce the quotation, and write your own commentary/analysis after it: After Orwell witnessed animal abuse he wrote, “Men exploit animals in much the same way as the rich exploit the worker” (“Meet George Orwell” 9). Orwell chose animals as his symbols to write about how governments abuse people. This was a smart way to write about this controversial topic, but people still refused to publish his book.

How to do Parenthetical Citations After a DIRECT QUOTATION: If you use someone’s words directly, put “quotation marks” around their words and a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence: After Orwell witnessed animal abuse he wrote, “Men exploit animals in much the same way as the rich exploit the worker” (“Meet George Orwell” 9).

After Paraphrasing: If you used their idea but you put it entirely in your own words , you put the citation at the end of the sentence where you talk about that idea, but no quotation marks: Orwell’s inspiration to use animals as symbols of oppressed people came from witnessing an incident of animal abuse (“Meet George Orwell” 9).

With a Signal Phrase You can also name the author in a "signal phrase. " Introduce them in the sentence before, and don’t put their name in the parentheses: Orwell defended his controversial writing by arguing that “Liberty is telling people what they do not want to hear” (74).

Resources to Help You • www. irvington. org/library Avoiding Plagiarism: • http: //owl. english. purdue. edu/owl/resource/589/01/ Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing: • http: //owl. english. purdue. edu/owl/resource/563/01/ • Hacker, Diana. A Writer's Reference, Fourth Ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 1999. A really helpful book! Many of the examples in this Power. Point came from this book.